Paper Topic:

the number of children and youth with physical disabilities is growing, yet health and social programs are not`.

Dwindling Support for Children with Disabilities

The Social Security Administration which is responsible for supporting disabled Americans

defines disability as a physical or mental condition , or a combination of conditions , that

results in marked and severe functional limitations '1 According to the 2007 American

Community Survey (ACS , an estimated 6 .3 children between the age of 5 and 15 years

have some form of disability and a 2006 survey suggests that 28 .6 of the disabled children

in the U .S . live below the poverty line compared to 16

.9 of normal children .2 However

most experts believe that the term poverty does not fully describe the material and the

emotional hardships that the families of these disabled children undergo . In fact , poverty and

disability influence each other . A longitudinal study by Fujiura and Yamaki (2000 ) has found

higher disability rates in low-income families possibly caused by poor nutritional status of the

mother during pregnancy and inability of the parents to provide the young children with a

stimulating environment .3 On the other hand , disabilities lead to higher unemployment rates

lower wages and high medical bills which are in turn responsible for poverty . Similarly , the

percentage of children with learning disabilities in families with an income of less than 35 ,000 was double that of children in families with an income of 100 ,000 or more . The

prognosis was also worse in children from underprivileged families .3

Even as the number of children with disabilities has been increasing over the...

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